Well, it’s officially a go for New Belgium Brewing in its plans to build an East Coast expansion facility on Craven Street in Asheville, as Tuesday night Asheville City Council approved the project.

While there is much work to be done at that site and the brewery is not scheduled to open until 2015, I thought this would be a good time to share some details on the really fun day I had at the New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colo., during my six-week journey across America this past fall.

It was day 3, and after a marathon drive from downtown St. Louis to Limon, Colo., about 90 miles east of Denver, I was ready the next day for some quality time outside the car, and New Belgium fit the bill.

I arrived mid-morning to get a prime parking spot in the shade – since I planned to be there all day – and went for a run on a popular bike path along the Cache la Poudre River. This was the Thursday morning after Labor D ay, and yet there was already lots of building energy at the brewery, with visitors lining up early for the first of many New Belgium tours throughout the day and checking in with the hostess who set up camp under a tent just outside the tasting room. Depending on what time and day you go, reservations are necessary up to a few months in advance for a tour.

After my run I freshened up, ate a nutritious lunch out of my cooler and then checked in for my own tour. Our group included folks from Buffalo, the Midwest, even a young couple from New Zealand who were on a similar brewery/National Parks parks tour of the country, and of course heads turned to me when it was my turn to announce where I was from, as New Belgium’s plans to expand in Asheville is no secret in the beer world.

Our tour guide was Bernie, who was fantastic – one of the best I’ve ever had for any tour. Bernie was knowledgeable and fun, and he wore his passion for his job on his sleeve, saying New Belgium founders Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan “changed my life” by investing in their employees when they could have “taken the money and run.” Lebesch and Jordan have since divorced and Jordan, New Belgium’s CEO, bought out Lebesch’s share in the company, we learned.

Bernie also shared some great snippets about New Belgium’s beginnings, but not before pouring us all a sample of Abbey Ale – one of numerous different samples throughout the 90-minute tour. We heard how Lebesch, an accomplished homebrewer back in the 1980s, toured Belgium to learn about traditional brewing techniques and recipes, how Jordan, a former social worker, would drive around Fort Collins in a station wagon delivering bottles of beer door to door with labels made by a neighbor.

Then, in 1991, looking to gain exposure for the couple’s budding company, Lebesch entered his Abbey Ale in the Great American Beer Festival and won gold in his first try. It was off to the races after that, and within three years New Belgium went to a 100-barrel brewing system.

After the brief history lesson, Bernie took us on stops throughout the facility – with new samples at each one – including the brewhouse. Let me tell you, this ranks among the most beautiful brewhouses I have ever seen, but don’t take my word for it: Three employees have held their wedding reception here! Yeah, that’s how nice it is.

The company’s 200-barrel brewhouse was built eight years ago to keep up with skyrocketing demand, Bernie said, and the system significantly increased efficiency by using one-third the energy despite doubling production. The brewhouse is a beautiful site, with a hip but elegant bicycle theme throughout and tiles surrounding the brew kettles that read, “To make our love and talent manifest.” Those kettles, which utilize flash boiling, produce 10 to 12 200-barrel batches every day, Bernie said.

Bernie went on to proudly boast how New Belgium has been an industry role model, and how former Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV and executives from Boston Beer Co. (maker of Samuel Adams) and Guinness had been in that very brewhouse drinking beer with the New Belgium folks and learning some of their tricks of the trade.

We also learned about New Belgium’s green efforts. In 1998 New Belgium became the first wind-powered brewery in America, Bernie said, and in 2001 built a water treatment plant on the property to help the city of Fort Collins with its population growth. The facility also features nearly 900 solar panels, on-site methane production, and two free electric car chargers right in front of the building, so you can pull and have a beer in the tasting room while your car charges just a few yards away. In the back of the building, meanwhile, we saw New Belgium’s two electric cars of its own that employees use to cruise around town running errands – with one charge good for 110 miles of driving.

Back to the beer, the tour included a look at what Bernie said is the largest wood-aged program of any brewery in the U.S., with a cool storage room that held more than 50 old wine barrels and a few whiskey barrels that had just arrived for some planned whiskey-aged brews. During this stop, we got to try a a 2011 La Folie – New Belgium’s first Belgian sour beer, created by Belgian brewmaster Peter Bouckaert, who came to New Belgium from the famed Belgian brewery Rodenbach after meeting Lebesch at a beer conference 17 years ago.

Yes, while Fat Tire Amber Ale may have put New Belgium on the mainstream map, it is the brewery’s Belgian-style beers that craft-beer lovers seek out. And so, after our group ended the tour with individual descents down the brewery’s circle slide to the first-floor tap room, I enjoyed a glass of Brett Beer and a Peach Porch Lounger from the Lips of Faith series before calling it a day and resting up for my drive across Wyoming the following morning en route to Grand Teton National Park.

By this time, the place was jam-packed and they were setting up for a big bike-themed festival in the evening. Suffice it to say there will be a lot going on up on Craven Street in Asheville when New Belgium opens its doors here.